


strawberries late at night (take me back to you)

by angelsouls



Series: sour strawberry juice (but it's sweet on your lips) [2]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Asano Gakuhou's A+ Parenting, Case Fic, Getting Back Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, author is not knowledgeable about stuff in the fic, except like. all of karushuu, i changed some stuff from canon so it would fit better but it's mostly canon compliant, pls excuse any mistakes i tried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25855966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsouls/pseuds/angelsouls
Summary: Karma's lips curled. It had been a long time since he had seen Asano Gakushuu. He inclined his head in greeting. Gakushuu did too. Karma met electric violet eyes and adrenaline spiked in him. The last time he saw him, he was kissing him—Sometimes the past comes back, and you just have to smile at it and take in stride. Sometimes the past comes back, and you realize that it never went away in the first place.Sequel tostrawberry wine and seventeenWritten for Assclass Bigbang 2020
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Series: sour strawberry juice (but it's sweet on your lips) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876171
Comments: 8
Kudos: 90





	strawberries late at night (take me back to you)

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is the second part of two fics I wrote for assclass bigbang.
> 
> A huge shoutout to isis for betaing for me—this couldn't have been finished without her.
> 
> Thank you to the amazing artist who worked with me: Wynn! You can find her @perwinnie on Tumblr and Instagram. Her art is attached at this end of this fic. Please give her a lot of love!
> 
> Livi, thank you so much for running the bigbang and it was so fun to be a part of it <3
> 
> and finally, if you enjoy reading, please leave kudos and comments!

Karma enjoyed his job at the Japanese Ministry of Finance. The easy grind of paperwork and dull conversations with middle-aged men who think he acts like a delinquent are entertaining, a sort of variation in the routine he had established as a working-class Japanese citizen. That was all he needed anyway; he was used to people barely tolerating him. There was something about his flaming red long hair, neatly pulled back into a bun that embodied him, even as he looked over budget reports and calculated increases in tax revenue.

It was his own way of indulging in the thrill that followed him through school, whether it was trying to kill the best caregiver he ever knew or snarking at Gakushuu over every test and project. The days were repetitive, and there was just enough disdain directed at him to make him smirk in calculated satisfaction. A part of him missed the action and constant rivalry, the way a careful smirk and the smooth red gel pen marked over his papers would cause a slight rise in his heart rate, a flush on his cheeks.

Regardless, life was all good...until Sato-san pinged him with an URGENT message. Karma sighed and dropped his head onto his keyboard until another notification sound alerted him that he _really_ needed to meet his boss. It was probably just Ito-san complaining about the knife tattoo on his ankle. Honestly, he didn’t mean to flash it, but it was just so hot in the room. Prepared to defend against the accusations of Yakuza affiliation, he lazily strode into the meeting room.

The sight surprised him. Yes, there was Sato-san standing there for sure, but there was also a familiar head of pink champagne in the corner. Karma's lips curled. It had been a long time since he had seen Asano Gakushuu. He inclined his head in greeting. Gakushuu did too. Karma met electric violet eyes and adrenaline spiked in him. The last time he saw him, he was kissing him—

Sato-san cleared his throat and began to speak, bringing Karma out of his thoughts. Regardess, Karma tuned out most of it; anything important would be sent to him in writing anyway. He was more interested in is why Gakushuu was here, after being abroad for the last five years. Last he had heard, he was a consultant at a company dealing in home security.

The creak of Sato-san’s chair broke him out of his thoughts, and he took a moment to process the information as Gakushuu stood to take the reports.

The project was simple at first glance: they were going to lead a team to investigate tax fraud in several corporations. It was a regular process, one that Karma had been a part of multiple times in the past. It was normally quick and easy; they just had to look over old reports for inconsistencies and investigate suspicious transactions. Often, it was simply a family who had forgotten to account for a property or a undocumented change in family status.

Karma can’t begin to fathom why he was chosen as lead instead of the old men sitting outside the door but doesn’t bring it up. Gakushuu’s face hardens, and ah, there must be something there. Karma glances at the list.

_Shirokami Corp._

Karma didn’t want to hear that name again, but it explains why he was chosen. He doubts even Sato-san knows why—chances are that someone higher up has chosen him and Gakushuu, not that he even knew about Gakushuu’s position at the Ministry of Finance. 

The truth about Koro-sensei had always been a closely guarded secret, one he hadn’t thought of in years but still picked at his mind constantly. Shirokami was the research lab that was responsible for Akari and Itona’s tentacles. It was a bitterly clever name: Shiro had always wanted to play God.

Of course, it was just the two of them leading the team. Load of luck the government had to find the both of them working on this.

Sato-san left, finishing up the briefing, leaving just the two of them in the room. Karma already had an idea of who he wanted on his team, but he asked Gakushuu’s opinion anyway. He was perfectly capable of acting civilly with the man who was his…rival? Pseudo-friend? Crush?

“I think you would have a better idea of who is suitable in the finance department, Akabane. You should pick,” he said, a knowing edge in his voice and the traces of a knowing smirk on his face.

Karma shrugged. He would have pushed for his own choices anyway, and there was no way that Gakushuu didn’t know that. “Great. We’ll handle that one on our own though,” he said, and there was no confusion as to what he is referring to.

Gakushuu nods. “Yeah.”

Karma lets himself smile, a shadow of one emerging. It’s been five years, but some things just never change.

Their first project meeting is in the morning, just a few weeks later. The room is full, and Karma can feel the skepticism rolling off the older workers in waves. Two young upstarts like Gakushuu and him were sure to make them a little uncomfortable at least. But they would work with them, and that was what Karma made sure of when building his team. He took a seat to the side, letting Gakushuu take over the initial briefing. He had always been the charmer, better at figuring out what made people tick for him, instead of against him.

Karma frowned slightly at that thought. Gakushuu knew how to piss people off too; he always made Karma want to punch the stupidly attractive smirk off his face when they were in school.

Either way, he was doing spectacularly at managing the crowd, if the increasingly pleasant expressions of the employees were anything to go by. It was at the conclusion of the meeting that the real struggle began: figuring out how to investigate Shirokami.

Gakushuu sighed and slumped into a chair, pulling up the Shirokami files on his laptop. Karma pulled up another chair next to him, peering at his screen. “So, have you looked through the files yet?” he asked.

“Just skimmed,” Gakushuu replied. “I bet you didn’t even look at them yet,” he added smugly.

“Yeah, I didn’t. So? What’s up? Anything looks weird?”

“That’s the thing. It looks normal, but there’s no way that they’re getting equipment at that price, and definitely not for antimatter testing. See?”

Karma read over the figures, and Gakushuu was right. There was no way their total budget only amounted to the amount written. Anti-matter research was expensive, and while the numbers on the files were large enough as to not warrant suspicion from someone less acquainted with Shirokami’s research, it was plain to Karma and Gakushuu that their figures were severely understated . “Have you tried looking at the Ministry’s secure database?”

Gakushuu shot him _a look_. “Of course I did. They look the same for the most part. In fact, the trend of figures in this ballpark extends back at least six years.”

Karma frowned. The rest of the companies were being investigated based on this year’s reports—faulty numbers or identifying information that may have been a mistake.

All of Shirokami’s reports, even those from years past, had been fishy—they should have been investigated ages ago. If Shirokami’s numbers were wrong for years, then there was only one explanation. “Someone’s covering for them. We’ve got to be careful.” This was no mistake.

Gakushuu nodded. “Who do you know that has access to these records?”

“ of people,” Karma grimaced. “That department has over 150 employees with access like this. There’s no way we can investigate all of them that thoroughly. Plus, whoever is doing this for Shirokami won’t be irresponsible.”

“We’ll just have to think of another way then. Do you know anyone inside the company?”

“No? Do you really think _I_ would know someone who works for Shirokami?” Karma asked incredulously.

Gakushuu flushed a little, realizing the stupidity of his question.

“Do you?” Karma said after a moment.

sano pressed his mouth into a thin line. “Maybe. But they would be a last resort; I don’t have stable contacts,” he said after a beat, almost mumbling. “Actually, I don’t think you should count on me having contacts at all.”

Karma knew there was more to it than he was letting on, but it was neither the time or place for it. Best case scenario, they wouldn’t have to touch it again.

“Isogai, you’ll never guess who I’m working with,” Karma said, greeting him from the kitchen. He had just come home an hour ago and had started on dinner, making miso soup and cooking rice to go with the _karaage_ he picked up on the way back from work.

“Hold on,” Isogai replied, closing the door behind him and dropping his bag onto the floor. He filled up a glass of water and slumped against the countertop, and then fixed his attention on Karma. “Now tell me.”

“I told you to guess,” Karma whined teasingly. “There’s no fun otherwise.”

“That’s what the ladies at the café said when I said that I was single, dammit,” Isogai muttered.

“And they’re weird old ladies,” Karma smirked, still stirring the soup, dressed in a bright red apron. “I’m not old and I don’t pry.”

“Liar,” Isogai shot back. “But seriously, I have no idea. Just tell me.”

“Fine,” he pouted, taking the pot off the heat. “Wash your hands and get over here, dammit. Anyways, as I was saying, I’m working with Asano.”

“And I’m supposed to know who Asano is?” Isogai asked.

Karma frowned slightly at him, disappointment radiating from his face. “You can’t have forgotten that quickly. It’s only been—” he paused for a second, mentally counting, “It’s only been eight years.”

Isogai pursed his lips while Karma served the curry onto two plates with a generous helping of rice, expectant.

“It can’t be,” Isogai trailed off. “Asano Gakuhou? The principal? I can’t believe that he went into bureaucracy, but now that you mention it, it doesn’t seem that weird.”

“No, dumbass,” Karma said. “Asano _Gakushuu_. Mr. Student Concil President?”

Isogai paused for a moment, waiting to chew completely. “You mean the guy you totally had a crush on during high school? We weren’t even there with you for high school and we knew, Karma,” Isogai smiled knowingly in the way that made Karma want to punch him.

“Shut up,” Karma retorted, flushing slightly at the memories of Gakushuu’s lips against his.

“You told me he went to MIT, in America. Why is he back?”

Karma shrugged. “Beats me. I didn’t even know that he worked in finance, much less here, at the Ministry.”

Isogai hummed in assent. “You could ask him if you want, but don’t pry,” he said the last part seriously. “It’s not our business.”

“You overestimate how much I care, Isogai,” Karma said, squeezing down the curiosity had had been building up in him since morning. “It’s just a work project.”

Gakushuu and Karma spent the next week or so emptying the coffee supply in the breakroom and poring over tax reports from the last six years. It was reminiscent of the nights they spent in the school library, looking over notes and debating ideas for their projects.

There weren’t inconsistencies in the taxes, no matter how much they looked, but the valuation and income reports didn’t add up to the truth. They created a tentacle monster and had the resources to do so; there was no way that the meager numbers reflected their true assets.

The reports were baseless then, and completely useless.

Gakushuu slammed his head onto the desk. There was no way he would have done that if they were in the presence of other people, but in the enclosed cubicle, he let go of any reservations.

“Your eyebags reflect your despair,” Karma said, referring to the large dark circles apparent on Gakushuu’s face. “Missing America?”

“Missing sleep,” Gakushuu shot back.

“So Asano needs his beauty sleep after all,” Karma said gleefully. “What are you, a model?”

“I have had a few modelling gigs,” Gakushuu said nonchalantly. “You should remember them, considering you made fun of me for it in high school.” He sighed. “You try being sexiled literally every night. Sometimes I hate living with Ren.”

“Ren? Is that the weird dude, the ugly dude, or the pretentious dude?” Karma asked. “I kind of remember that name.”

“The pretty one,” Gakushuu rolled his eyes, turning back towards his laptop.

“So the pretentious dude, huh? Just give him a taste of his own medicine? Don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“I literally haven’t dated anyone since…” he trailed off, not knowing how to address their history. Karma shifted uncomfortably. “Anyway, I can’t believe you’re doing this, considering you and Ren used to gang up on me all the time in high school. Don’t act like you don’t know him.”

“Did I?” Karma feigned ignorance. “Don’t remember.”

He paused.

“Sakakibara still owes me five boxes of strawberry juice.”

Karma chewed his strawberry bubblegum obnoxiously, making loud smacking sounds as he leaned back in his dark mesh chair. “So,” he started, spinning around in his seat, legs perched on Gakushuu’s desk, “Don’t you have any connections to use for this? I mean, considering you’re an _Asano_ after all. Didn’t daddy leave you anyone to suck up to?”

Gakushuu stiffened and replied curtly, “No, he didn’t. Drop it.”

Karma paused. If it were him just four years ago, he would have goaded him further, pushing at all of his buttons and now exposed weakness for pleasure, finding satisfaction in the way his ears reddened and eyes narrowed. There was nothing like seeing a pretty flush on Gakushuu too, especially since he was calm and collected most of the time.

But he didn’t, not this time. Something about the way he reacted spoke too much of Nagisa when confronted about his mom, of Karma when reminded of his parents, of a relationship too fractured to even find all the pieces, much less put them together.

“Fine, do you have any better ideas? I mean, I don’t know if I can do this, but I know that you probably can, Mr. Genius.”

“What it is it?” Gakushuu said flatly, already annoyed.

“What I’m saying is that we need to get inside their systems.”

“That’s illegal.”

“And since when does that stop the likes of us?” Karma smirked. “It’s our best option.”

Gakushuu grimaced and then nodded after a few seconds. “Okay, we’ll do it, but we can’t do it here. I need a better PC, a faster one to get onto Shirokami’s servers. They’re going to be highly encrypted,” he continued, now almost mumbling to himself. “We’ll have to do it at a house.”

“Yours,” Karma cut in, sounding too delighted for the arrangement to be unexpected. “Our data sucks between Isogai and me. It’s not like we make a lot, you know?”

Gakushuu sighed. At least Ren was out of town for the time-being.

Gakushuu glared at Karma as he slid into passenger seat of his car, still drinking strawberry juice. Karma might have been imagining it, but he could swear he saw a hint of longing directed at his bright pink juice box.

“Don’t spill anything.” Gakushuu said curtly, starting the engine. “Or you’re paying for the stains. For the record, that goes for inside my place too.”

Now sipping on a second juice box, Karma settled into the plush cushions on Gakushuu’s couch, tucking his legs close to his body. Gakushuu sat next to him, leaving a considerable amount of space between them as he booted up his personal laptop. Karma wordlessly passed him a carton of strawberry juice. Gakushuu glanced at it, deliberating whether to accept the drink or not.

“Just take it, Asano. I know you like it, even if you mostly drink that disgusting black sludge.” Karma feigned vomiting, pushing the carton further into Gakushuu’s space. He took the drink from Karma’s hands, pointedly not looking him. “You know, your place is pretty nice. I would raid your wine cabinet, but I’m too nice for that. Sakakibara lives here too, right? Where is he?”

“You still haven’t told me what we’re looking for,” he changed the topic.

“Please, it’s not like you don’t know what we’re looking for. Hey, does Sakakibara put up his nude shoots in his room? I bet he would. He probably looks for an ego boost as he gets up.”

Disgruntled but unable to refute the first point and pointedly ignoring the second, Gakushuu returned all of his attention to his screen, typing furiously. Only a few minutes later, Gakushuu muttered, “I’m in.”

Karma leaned over to see the screen better. Sure enough, the entirety of Shirokami’s online presence was displayed, sorted into hundreds of folders. “Where do we start?”

“I’m going to sort it for importance,” Gakushuu replied. “Probably…here.” He clicked on a folder labeled _FINANCE_.

Karma pulled out the submitted reports that they had from his bag and compared them to the files in the folder. “They’re the same. They’re all the fake ones.”

Gakushuu grimaced. “I can try searching for data matches.”

The search came up empty.

Karma frowned at the results, pulling out his phone and firing off a text. “I might have another solution.” At Gakushuu’s quizzical look, he elaborated, “Ritsu. We had an AI classmate _that_ year. I think Nagisa knows the access code to her program. She could probably search the Shirokami database.”

Gakushuu nodded, processing, then abruptly turned his head back to Karma. “Why did I have to do this then? Couldn’t she just hack onto the servers herself?”

Karma shook his head. “She has to be used within an established database. She can’t enter a foreign collection without being given entry. Either way, we would have had to hack into it ourselves initially.”

Karma connected his phone to the laptop, opening up the program Nagisa sent. “Hey Ritsu.”

“Karma!” Ritsu chirped. “What do you need?”

“Uh, I’m going to put you into the database for Shirokami, okay? I need you to see if you can find any financial reports other than the ones that we already opened today. I’m going to open your program on the laptop now, okay?”

“Yeah, sure, no problem.”

At Karma’s nod, Gakushuu opened up the file considering Ritsu’s program and moved it to the open Shirokami database.

“I’m going to run now,” Ritsu said from Karma’s phone.

“Good luck and don’t get caught.”

“Of course,” Ritsu giggled. “Who do you take me for?” 

Barely eight minutes later, Ritsu was back. “Did you find anything?” Gakushuu asked.

“Nah. There isn’t anything like that. Actually, I couldn’t find any important files. Nothing about the higher-ups or the experiments that they’re running. Most of the files are unimportant; it’s mostly things like resumes and private chats between employees. I did find this though. I’ll pull it up on the laptop.”

_Move these to the internal servers._

_Find more in internal servers._

_Refer to internal server._

Dozens of messages that all referred to an ‘internal server’ were displayed on the screen.

Gakushuu swore. “We’re going to have to get inside. Ritsu, can you find security information?”

“You’re lucky,” Ritsu said with a hint of smile. “I can give you blueprints, schedules, and personnel. What do you need?”

Karma handed Gakushuu strawberry juice as he wordlessly opened his laptop. They were back in Gakushuu’s car, parked in a dark alley near Shirokami’s campus.

“I don’t even like this,” Gakushuu said, no heat behind his words.

“Drink it anyway,” Karma replied, not bothering to call out his obvious lie. They drank them all the time years ago, and even if his tastes did change, Karma knew Gakushuu wouldn’t even take the drink. “Who’s going to go into Shirokami, me or you?”

“Not you. You’re going to get a little too excited about their technology and go to jail. Which, I don’t care—don’t look at me like that, you dickhead—but I feel like you might care about that.”

“Aw, you care, Asano!” Karma said, looking smug. “The law only matters if we’re caught, which you know, we won’t be. Plus, I have,” He paused and looked around for dramatic effect much to Gakushuu’s chagrin. “ _Connections_.”

“Ah yes, your ex-teacher that works for the Defense Ministry,” Gakushuu said dryly.

Karma beamed, electing to ignore Gakushuu’s tone of words. “Exactly! We’ll be fine. You can’t expect that he taught us nothing. I’m literally a trained assassin.”

“Training you haven’t used since you were 15.”

“Not true; I snuck some of Kobayashi-san’s dango last week with it. You, know, just like how I always used to take from the teachers’ offices in high school. I’m very proficient.”

Gakushuu glared at him. “Can’t you find another way?”

“I did, even before we hacked them, and you said no,” Karma said, and Gakushuu sighed.

They were doing it.

Which is exactly why Karma found himself dressed in all black and covered, standing outside the gate to Shirokami Corp’s largest research facility. It was located in Wako, Saitama, just on the outskirts of Tokyo. t was bland: the concrete walls were greyish-beige and devoid of almost any windows. The gate was metallic and large, towering in front Karma. He took a quick breath and scanned the surroundings for cameras. On the gate, one near the front entrance, a few attached to lights in the grounds…it was exactly how the blueprints showed. In just a few moments, the cameras would loop footage from earlier in the night, just how he and Gakushuu programmed it to.

30…12…3…1

He checked his watch. _21:30._ Perfect. He slipped into the grounds then circled the perimeter to check for unattended openings. There was one door near the back meant for deliveries that wasn’t yet closed, probably because the good still needed to be sorted. Karma looked around the dark room, trying not to topple or trip on any of the large boxes, especially the ones labeled with a large FRAGILE sticker. Finding the door leading inside, he snuck into the dimly illuminated hallway and walked briskly, glancing inside the various offices and labs to check their personnel and contents. He went upstairs and tailed an employee who looked young and around Karma's build. Discreetly taking his ID pass, Karma bypassed the locked doors into the wing that was labeled on the map he memorized earlier as _important_. He heard a faint buzzing noise from the hallway and followed it to a large lab with many servers.

This had to be where the information was stored, and he had to find a PC that was connected to these servers.

Unlike the information Karma had hacked into earlier on their cloud, it seemed like the real records were stored internally.

Taking a deep breath, Karma backed out of the room and closed the door softly behind him. He was about to turn to go further down the hallways when he heard footsteps and voices growing louder from the only entrance.

He had to get out.

Karma ducked back into the server room, back pressed against the mainframes. The heat was uncomfortable but not unbearably so. Karma held his breath until the voices passed then counted to five under his breath, hoping they would be out of sight by then. He raced out of the room, not bothering to look back as he dashed down the hallway. By the time he was outside the grounds, he was panting heavily and hunched over, trying to catch his breath. He called Gakushuu, who picked up almost immediately.

“Did you get it?” he asked hurriedly, slurring the words together.

“No, they almost found me,” Karma replied, and Gakushuu cursed. “I know where it is though. We can get it the next time, probably.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Gakushuu said before teasing Karma. “Can you come to the car or are you that out of breath from a quick chase?”

“You wish,” Karma cackled, starting to jog towards where Gakushuu had parked.

Karma burst into Gakushuu’s cubicle the next day, wide-eyed. “They fucking caught us. They can’t prove it, but they fucking caught us.”

Gakushuu wheeled around, questioning. “Huh?”

“Did you see the email I forwarded you? The bastard.”

Gakushuu pulled up his emails quickly and clicked on the latest one from Karma. He had never seen him like this, seething and frantic. “This one?” he asked as he clicked on the image attached. An email from their customer service department—which was so widely used by the bureau that it would have been easy to use by any employees. Gakushuu’s expression tightened at the implication and he began to read:

_Hello Akabane-san,_

_I want to say that it’s a pleasure. I know you have been working hard; computers are just so hot you know?_

_Oops, ah, I meant to say hard. I just wanted to welcome you. By God’s grace we are all able to keep our livelihoods._

_No dark marks on our lives which shine brighter than any color._

_Regards,_

_A well wisher_

Gakushuu narrowed his eyes. “What if it really is a well-wisher?”

Karma stared. “Really? Writing like that? This isn’t just a coincidence. You know...If you just used your _precious little daddy’s connections_ , we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”

Gakushuu narrowed his eyes. “I don’t care what happened. Even if we both go to jail, if we die, or whatever, I don’t fucking care. Don’t you dare bring my father into this. I didn’t want to, so I didn’t. Who the hell are you to tell me what to do, Karma? A shitty delinquent?”

“No, don’t _you_ dare. If you had made one tiny phone call, we wouldn’t be in this mess. You’re just scared, too scared that you won’t even do so to stop a company that’s done nothing but ruin lives,” Karma spoke harshly, glaring.

“You’re fucking hung up on that dumb yellow octopus! Get it together, Akabane, or get the fuck out.”

“It’s you—”

“Out.” Gakushuu’s voice was deathly still and his fingers shook. “Get out.”

“Fine. I see how it is. Still playing principal’s pet.” Karma slammed the door on his way out.

The door didn’t even fully close before Gakushuu sunk back into his chair, air knocked out of his lungs, shaking and on the verge of sobbing.

Gakushuu spent the night with a bottle of red wine and a tub of ice cream, specifically not strawberry flavored. The doorbell rang at eleven, startling Gakushuu. Ren wouldn’t be back for another two weeks from Europe. He considered not answering but paused his episode of Avatar and got up anyway, haphazardly trying to fix his messy hair to be somewhat presentable. He stuck his head out of the door, tentatively greeting, “Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Akabane, what the fuck?” he said, shocked, letting the edge of resentment creep into his voice, left over from this afternoon.

Karma recognized it and his mouth pressed into a thin line. “I just wanted to apologize. I’m sorry for what I said this afternoon—it was rash and unacceptable of me to say something about your dad.”

Gakushuu sighed, “Just... just stop. You don’t have to apologize to me about insulting my father, and that too so formally. It sounds weird,” he said flatly. “I know he’s an asshole. I’m not above using his help; you know that. I can’t anymore.”

Karma paused, processing the words. “You can’t. Not that you don’t want to, but you _can’t_.”

“Well, dad never took kindly to me after I partnered with 3-E and especially after I started tutoring students. I haven’t talked to him in years.”

“That’s why... you stayed in the library, night after night and all of those days we—”

Gakushuu smiled a little at the reminder, memories of different days and a different time.

“Anyways,” Karma said abruptly, unsure of how to properly respond to Gakushuu. “I have to get going. Bye, I guess.”

Gakushuu looked back toward his freezer, remembering the strawberry ice cream he had stashed away. He glanced at the bottle of wine, still half full and turned back to the door, stepping outside. “Hey, Karma,” he said, and Karma turned from his place, halfway down the stairs of the apartment. “It’s late and we have to deal with the email anyway. And I have strawberry ice cream?”

Karma stared, then, taking the invitation for what it was, made his way back up to Gakushuu’s door, fidgeting. “Are you sure?”

“Tomorrow is Saturday; we would have had to work together anyway. You can take Ren’s room. See his face in your dreams.”

Karma cracked a small smile at the joke.

The night was old when they dozed off, leaning into each other on the couch and balancing an empty pink tub of ice cream on their laps. The wine bottle was bare, leading to the throbbing in his head that Gakushuu woke up with. He pulled away from the couch, trying his best not to disturb Karma. He looked peaceful when sleeping, serene in a way he never was while awake.

Gakushuu cleared the empty bottle and tubs, choosing to ignore the circumstances that led up to this situation. It would be better for the both of them if they focused on work instead of mixing in his personal feelings.

It didn’t help that every time, he was drawn more and more to the feelings he held as a kid, stumbling through high school.

He needed to clear his head.

“Advil?” Gakushuu asked, filling up two tall glasses with water. He took two pills before taking out another two to give to Karma.

“Yeah, thanks,” Karma said blearily, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. His hair had come out of his bun, spilling out of the hair tie in and into his face. “So…” He trailed off, unsure of how to progress.

“I have a spare toothbrush and you can shower. Borrow Ren’s clothes—he won’t mind. We can work on the email issue after that.”

Karma nodded and headed towards the bathroom. If Gakushuu was going to ignore it, then he would too.

It was only one or two hours later that they settled back into Gakushuu’s couch, laptop open in front of them. “They know.” Karma said flatly, staring at the email with a blank expression.

Gakushuu sighed. Karma was right: there was no way that this was sent right after Karma was almost caught at Shirokami, and that too, worded suspiciously.

“We have to work carefully—I think the person on the inside knows that we have this case and that we’re not dumb enough to let it go.” Karma said.

“I mean, if he knew about your… _history—_ ”

Karma grimaced at the thought. “I hope he doesn’t, because if he does, this entire thing is going to be a lot harder. That information is supposed to be confidential, and if Shirokami told him, that means that this guy is a lot more important to them than we thought. Itona always said Shiro never liked to divulge information unless he had to.”

“Right,” Gakushuu nodded, deep in thought. “Do you know who walked by yesterday?”

“No, but I think I could pick them out if I saw a picture. They probably have some on the database? At least, I remember seeing Photo ID on the entry badges while I was there. We can ask Ritsu if her program is still on your laptop.”

They ran a quick search for a list of employees on the database, pulling up a list complete with full names, titles, and pictures. There were almost four thousand results from all over the country, and a few overseas as well.

“Can you filter it, Ritsu? We only want the people that are at the top or work at the Wako research facility.” Karma asked, and the list whittled down to a meager two hundred individuals. They went through it together, Karma shaking his head at all the profiles. “None of them are matching.”

Gakushuu groaned. “Could it be someone visiting?”

Ritsu piped up, “I can look at the travel logs and visitor log for people visiting the Wako facility.”

She ran the program once again, now bringing up only three results: Watanabe Kousei, Yamamoto Haruto, and Takahashi Yuto.

“It’s him,” Karma said, pointing to the first result. “Watanabe-san was the person I saw.”

“Are you sure?” Gakushuu asked to confirm.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay then, I’ll hack into him later to find out if he has had contact with anyone from the Ministry.” He turned to Karma. “We still have to figure out what to do about getting the actual files.”

“I can go in again,” Karma said. “It’s not a big deal.”

Gakushuu shook his head. “I’ll do it.” Gakushuu couldn’t keep sitting here while Karma went in. He was right—if Gakushuu could have used his father’s connections, they wouldn’t be in this positions.

Karma had wanted to work here since they were in middle school. Gakushuu was only here to build up capital, money to build up a startup company. And yet, Karma was the one inside Shirokami, where, if caught, he would have lost his job and his freedom for trespassing. If anything, Gakushuu should have been the one in Shirokami that night.

“Asano, I’ve already been inside and I know where the files are. If anything, I should go back.”

“And you’re risking too much. I haven’t even been able to do what you expected me to.”

“Asano, no.” Karma cut in, horrified. “You shouldn’t have, I—I was out of line, didn’t I tell you?”

“Listen to me,” Gakushuu turned to Karma. “I have known you for a while now—almost a decade. You have always wanted to work here, an office job. I’ve always wanted to do a startup. The reason I came back was that my H1-B visa didn’t go through. I worked at a few companies after my MIT degree, but I didn’t get in through the lottery. I’m hoping to start one here or in another metro area—maybe Seoul or Beijing? I’m even considering Bangalore. Either way, the only reason I’m here is for capital, which I could get working any job. You, on the other hand, deserve to be working here without risk.”

“I need you to shut up.”

Gakushuu paused, taken aback by Karma’s response. “What?”

“I said, I need you to shut up. I knew well before what taking this case entailed and I could have refused. Hell, any other employee would have already submitted a report clearing Shirokami. Did you forget? Their records were clean, Asano. _Clean_. I’m only here because who the hell knows what they’re doing with the extra money? Because if it’s a second Koro-sensei, none of us would forgive them. And I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to know about it.”

“I know. I wouldn’t be able to handle it either.”

“And why?” Karma asked, looking so lost. It was an unusual look on him, who was normally so self-assured. “You shouldn’t have to care. You’ve done so much; you deserve so much. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still an asshole.” Gakushuu cracked a smile at that as Karma continued on, “But, why the hell haven’t you told me to submit a report clearing them at this point? Why are you willing to hack them using your own laptop?” he finished, voice breaking.

There was only one other time in his life that Gakushuu had seen Karma like this, so small and fragile after letting his boisterous exterior fall away. It was the Karma that cared too much for those who had wormed their way into his heart and never had it been directed toward him, never did he expect it would be for him.

“Because I fucking care.” Gakushuu replied in a whisper so soft it was barely heard and yet, Karma shuddered violently as if it had been pierced into him. “I have cared since you did, since you dragged me out of the hell I was living, since you made me better. So please, let me go.”

Karma could do nothing but nod dumbly.

“Okay then,” Gakushuu said, not trusting his voice to go louder. “Let’s try again tonight. And Karma? Make sure you have Kurosuna’s contact.”

“It’s Karasuma, you imbecile,” Karma retorted without heat. “And yeah, tonight sounds fine. But I’m driving this time.”

Hopefully, Gakushuu wouldn’t die before making it inside.

On the bright side, Gakushuu didn’t die before making it to Shirokami. Chewing on a piece of strawberry flavored gum he swiped from Karma, he made his way into the building. That time, he just needed to go straight to the database and confirm the location of their files on the local servers. It didn’t take long for him to find the room—it was clearly marked, and unfortunately, manned. Gakushuu looked inside through the small window on the door, trying to discern the identity of the person. If they looked like anyone they knew from the executive, they would have to wait it out until their positions weren’t at risk.

The man inside was young and had curly dark hair—no one important matched that description. Using the ID badge that Karma had swiped from an employee last time, he unlocked the door and silently made his way inside. Quickly, he covered the man’s face with a gag, preventing him from making any noise and then used a clip over his nose to restrict his breathing. Finally, he blindfolded him before he could see Gakushuu.

Best case scenario, the man would pass out with no recollection of who gagged him, and at the very least, all he would know would be the clacking sound of Gakushuu typing. Leaning over the keyboard with his gloves on, Gakushuu searched the local servers for any files relating to financial affairs of Shirokami.

It took barely a few minutes before results began to show, real results unlike the farces that he and Karma had been looking at for the last few weeks. Mentally noting down the locations, he slipped back out of the building and went back towards the car.

“Not bad,” Karma said. “Only took you about an hour. Did you find them?”

Gakushuu scowled, buckling in his seatbelt. “Yeah. We can submit an anonymous tip and then investigate it. Did Ritsu find our Ministry insider?”

Karma beamed. “Hell yeah. It’s Ito Hiretsu. Honestly, no wonder…with a name like that, it should have been expected. Ritsu scanned through phone and other surveillance logs all day and she found him speaking to Watanabe that morning. Ritsu already screwed up his communication channels so we should have no problems.”

Gakushuu sighed. “It’s all done then. We can split up on the rest, I guess.”

“Yeah. Did anyone else have trouble on their files?” Karma asked, referring to the rest of their team.

“I don’t think so? Maybe Nakamura-san. I think his is a personal case though—”

Karma made a face. “Then it’s probably just a mistake. They probably just have to refile them.” Karma turned to look at Gakushuu. “So? How long were you planning to stay here anyway?” he asked. “Since you’re only here to build up capital for a startup. Why not just build it here?”

“My dad,” Gakushuu replied, his voice still easy.

“Oh,” Karma said. “We don’t have to—”

“It’s fine, besides, I already cried my heart out to you a few days ago, didn’t I?’ Gakushuu chuckled. “I just don’t want anything to do with the Asano name.”

“You could always just take my name, you know. Switch or something.” The words were out of his mouth before Karma could even think about what he said.

Gakushuu stared. “Akabane, what the fuck?” Did he even know what he was saying? “You shouldn’t be driving drunk.”

Karma latched onto Gakushuu’s response. “I’m not drunk.”

“Yeah, but you clearly have no idea the meaning your words carry.”

“I wasn’t lying. Maybe I wasn’t serious, but honestly? I wouldn’t mind if you did. Akabane Gakushuu doesn’t sound bad.”

Gakushuu flushed. “You c-can’t…” he stammered out. “Do you hear yourself right now?”

“I can, Asano, I can. On the topic of me being drunk though, we should get drunk.” He turned to Gakushuu and grinned wickedly.

Honestly, Gakushuu couldn’t disagree, but he didn’t want to be in a situation where either of them would have to drive back drunk. He convinced Karma to come back to his apartment, picking up alcohol (and boxes of strawberry juice at Karma’s request) at the nearby conbini before heading up to his flat.

They—quite sensibly since they had work the next day—did not get drunk, although they were pleasantly buzzed. A random show on Netflix played in the background while the two of them lay sprawled on the couch. Karma had already ditched his beer for his favorite juice, sipping on the sugary sour drink. “Why are you spending so much time with me?” Karma asked, slurring his words a bit. “You didn’t answer me before, so, boyfriend? Girlfriend? Joyfriend? Did you leave them back in America?” he gasped. “That’s really sad.”

Asano glared at him. “I’ve been single.” And for the most part it was true. There were a few dates here and there, but nothing stable. “And you?” he shot back. It’s not like he would let this conversation go one-sided.

“Nope, not really. I don’t think I’ve actually been with someone since high—” He broke off.

There was no doubt as to what Karma was referring to, but neither of them wanted to approach the subject. Suddenly the atmosphere became heavy. “Yeah, same,” Gakushuu mumbled. “It just—It didn’t work out.” A moment of pause. “Not like that,” he added, unsure if he had overstepped.

“Exactly.”

They fell back into silence, but it was charged, the tension between them taut like a tightrope, ever so precarious. The seconds dragged on like unbearable hours. Karma turned and so did Gakushuu, their eyes meeting.

“Can I—”

“ _Yes.”_

They couldn’t tell who moved first but suddenly it was lips on lips just like summer nights on the school rooftop and the taste of artificial strawberries. Gakushuu fell backwards on his couch, his arms wrapped around Karma’s neck. They pulled away after a bit, and Karma grinned. “So?”

“Yeah.” Gakushuu nodded, exhilarated. “Maybe there’s space for a new startup in Japan.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi!  
> [anime tumblr](https://atsumuwus.tumblr.com/)  
> [anitwt](https://twitter.com/atsumuws?s=09)  
> [curious cat](http://curiouscat.qa/angelsouls)


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